Yes, the offense is bad at times as well, but the D is working hard on securing records for being shitty. On top of that, for how bad our offense is, Dalton is tied for 3rd in TD passes. The O does come to play more often than the D. I understand we've been bad in the third quarter, but the offense has brought us back to win in the 4th. I know the D won the Miami game, but they lose games too.

The D is ridiculously bad. We need to fire Austin. Honestly, how much worse can it be? We're giving up an insane amount of yards and points and can't get off the field on 3rd down. It doesn't matter what quarter it is, how long they were off the field, or anything like that. They can't make the stops they have to. Blame the O for them being gassed, but why can't they help themselves and make a stop on 3rd down?

Our soft zone is shit, pressure is inconsistent, tackling is a total farce. For ****'s sake we could probably switch the OLine to DLine and vice-versa and not notice too much of a difference in performance (tongue in cheek joke, don't freak out).

I understand a lot of people's favorite players are on the D, but they are a bigger problem than the offense. It needs to be fixed and now.

I see this clueless nitwit still has a job today

How lovely

(10-29-2018, 01:44 PM)psychdoctor Wrote: I just wanted to add to Austin apologists, he is emphasizing turnovers, and the Bengals had 4 takeaways against Tampa..and still almost lost.  his philosophy doesn't work with the Bengals personnel, especially give the fact the Bengals have weak backers and the secondary have some inconsistency at CB.

Chuck Bresnahan had the exact same emphasis, and we saw similar results under him. Clearly, prioritizing turnovers over everything else does not work at this level. 

Why not fire him? We couldn’t be worse, quite literally.

(10-29-2018, 03:44 PM)bengalhoel Wrote: Browns fired Haley and Hue Jackson. It can be done. 

Well, I hope something changes.  

(10-29-2018, 05:14 PM)XenoMorph Wrote: yeah part of the problem is health at linebacker...


We are starting Hardison for petes sake...

CB is banged up a bit too...    I don't know if the secondary issues is CB or Safteys as those blown deep plays is what a Saftey is suppose to stop.

The problem in coverage happens more than once and it seems the players are either unaware of their assignments or make bad decisions.  Either way, it needs to be fixed.  It may be the safeties that are having the issues, given that Bates is a rookie and Williams seems poor in coverage.  

Even with missing our starting Center, both starting TEs, best pass blocking/catching RB and the player originally penned in as the #2 WR the Offense while having bad patches where it goes to sleep still has been functional. And remember the offensive scheme was specifically designed to use the TE in a 2 WR 2 TE setup so we have had to drop the scheme everyone trained on and adopt a new one on the fly.

Meanwhile the defense is on a path to set an all time NFL record for being bad, and while it too has been hit by injuries the hit has not been nearly as bad as the one on offense. Plus the defensive issues really, really look like scheme issues compounded by horrid tackling technique. These players are not suited for playing in soft zones and the result is zones with big holes that receivers go into and make easy catches.

What about bringing back Richard LeBeau? So what if he’s 110 years old.....

When some of the folks who are level headed and football smart on this board, are calling for Austin's head, I begin to wonder how much of that is related to the Pitt loss and the manner of the KC loss. 

I get the implications. Those losses provide evidence that our prospects for post season success may not be good. I think that is the biggest difference from when this Team was 4-1. There was a feeling that we could compete with anyone and go deep in the playoffs. 

But consider the following:
1) We are still on pace for playoffs. Keep in mind that we could still win the first playoff game, depending on seeding and whom we play. 
2) Injuries that have plagued us, can occur to any of these Teams, as well. We can get healthy and see where everyone else is.
3) We have new schemes on both sides of the ball. As the season progresses, familiarity and repetition will fix some issues.
4) We may have to temper expectations - i.e. SB appearance this year. But this can still be a successful year. 
5) Recall our record since 2015 and compare to where we are now.
   
The Defensive scheme is built to the strengths of this Team, which is the secondary and D-Line - in that order. When the line generates pressure, the secondary is supposed to generate turnovers.

Despite tackling issues and interception drops, this defense has won us multiple games this year. If players deliver to the scheme AND the offense keeps their end of the bargain, we will be fine. Have patience.

I really feel that this is an improved Team. The record does not lie. Any win in NFL is a win.

I ask that we view the KC loss (as terrible as it was) as an anomaly. It is only one loss. Steelers gave up 42 points to KC in Heinz field...

(10-29-2018, 08:43 PM)XsandOs Wrote: When some of the folks who are level headed and football smart on this board, are calling for Austin's head, I begin to wonder how much of that is related to the Pitt loss and the manner of the KC loss. 

I get the implications. Those losses provide evidence that our prospects for post season success may not be good. I think that is the biggest difference from when this Team was 4-1. There was a feeling that we could compete with anyone and go deep in the playoffs. 

But consider the following:
1) We are still on pace for playoffs. Keep in mind that we could still win the first playoff game, depending on seeding and whom we play. 
2) Injuries that have plagued us, can occur to any of these Teams, as well. We can get healthy and see where everyone else is.
3) We have new schemes on both sides of the ball. As the season progresses, familiarity and repetition will fix some issues.
4) We may have to temper expectations - i.e. SB appearance this year. But this can still be a successful year. 
5) Recall our record since 2015 and compare to where we are now.
   
The Defensive scheme is built to the strengths of this Team, which is the secondary and D-Line - in that order. When the line generates pressure, the secondary is supposed to generate turnovers.

Despite tackling issues and interception drops, this defense has won us multiple games this year. If players deliver to the scheme AND the offense keeps their end of the bargain, we will be fine. Have patience.

I really feel that this is an improved Team. The record does not lie. Any win in NFL is a win.

I ask that we view the KC loss (as terrible as it was) as an anomaly. It is only one loss. Steelers gave up 42 points to KC in Heinz field...

Rebuttal: we are on pace to give up the most yards ever in NFL history

I've only wanted to fire like 4 coaches in the Marvin era.... Breshnahan, Alexander, Brat, and this guy Austin. The other 3 look pretty justified.

They don't get good pressure.
They don't stop the run.
They don't cover.
They don't tackle good.

The only thing they do ok is get some turnovers.

They give away 15 yard catches like they're Halloween candy and then miss 3 tackles after it. It is hard to watch. I literally am watching less because it disgusts me. Judging by the crowd Sunday some other people think it's hard to watch. I can't name a successful team that had the crappiest Defense in the league...so what's the point in paying any attention.

If they don't get something fixed on D then this year is gonna be pointless.

PS. I forgot all their blitz designs are stupid and start from too far away and never get there. They just leave a free route runner. Paulie/Zim designed the double A gap alignment/blitz to combat this problem with the sophisticated offenses of today. This clown thinks he's disguising something but QB's this day read it like a Dr Seuss book.

It's easy. Does Burfict seem like himself? I could be wrong, but I think there's something off with him. He knows he can't say anything, but he doesn't like this defense. I don't think Marvin does, either. It's not making the best use of the talent we have, though we could use some more talent. Injuries have hurt, but we weren't that great when we were healthy. We still can't cover TEs. Our LBs always get exposed. We really need Vigil to come back. Nickerson needs to go. He doesn't tackle well at all. And Burfict really hasn't been himself.

(10-29-2018, 10:27 PM)Shady Wrote: It's easy. Does Burfict seem like himself? I could be wrong, but I think there's something off with him. He knows he can't say anything, but he doesn't like this defense. I don't think Marvin does, either. It's not making the best use of the talent we have, though we could use some more talent. Injuries have hurt, but we weren't that great when we were healthy. We still can't cover TEs. Our LBs always get exposed. We really need Vigil to come back. Nickerson needs to go. He doesn't tackle well at all. And Burfict really hasn't been himself.

If it was just Butfict I’d say it’s on him, but it’s not. WJ3 looks nothing like the shutdown CB that was so dominant against elite WR’s like Antonio Brown last season. Geno got off to a good start, but hasn’t had a sack in 3 games. And the secondary is constantly looking to blame each other, and is just generally confused much too often.

(10-29-2018, 10:27 PM)Shady Wrote: It's easy. Does Burfict seem like himself? I could be wrong, but I think there's something off with him. He knows he can't say anything, but he doesn't like this defense. I don't think Marvin does, either. It's not making the best use of the talent we have, though we could use some more talent. Injuries have hurt, but we weren't that great when we were healthy. We still can't cover TEs. Our LBs always get exposed. We really need Vigil to come back. Nickerson needs to go. He doesn't tackle well at all. And Burfict really hasn't been himself.

Burfict is a shell of himself thus far this season.  No leadership.  No impact.  Nothing.  

(10-30-2018, 12:19 AM)psychdoctor Wrote: Burfict is a shell of himself thus far this season.  No leadership.  No impact.  Nothing.  

The bold is not true. I saw Steelers WR’s get alligator arms and drop balls out of fear of getting hit by 55.

(10-30-2018, 12:27 AM)Nicomo Cosca Wrote: The bold is not true. I saw Steelers WR’s get alligator arms and drop balls out of fear of getting hit by 55.

It’s negated by how many tackles he has missed. In his three games, he has 17 tackles with 7 missed tackles. He’s been a net-negative this year, unfortunately...

(10-30-2018, 12:37 AM)KillerGoose Wrote: It’s negated by how many tackles he has missed. In his three games, he has 17 tackles with 7 missed tackles. He’s been a net-negative this year, unfortunately...

17 tackles in 2 1/2 games isn’t nearly as bad as some are claiming though.

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/25122438/2018-nfl-cleveland-browns-why-hue-jackson-had-go-be-coaching-baker-mayfield-next

Listed as a possible Cleveland Head Coach candidate! We might get lucky...

Doubt his phone will be ringing any time soon.

Dehner had an interesting tweet, in that Austin was in the EXACT same sitch in 2015:

- Worst-ranked D
- Bye after week 8

Only 2 differences were that the D gave up LESS yards than this one has (which is to be expected, with how much the game has changed since then to accommodate passers) and Detroit was 1-7.

After the bye, Detroit went 6-2 (one of the losses was to the Rams too, so not all were gimme teams), had the 6th or 7th best D the rest of the way and they only had 1 game of over 400 yards given up.

Not saying he will turn it around, but it is interesting.

They only had 9 interceptions for the year though, while we're already at 10. They did force 17 fumbles though and we've only forced 6.

EDIT: Call it habit, but I also don't like him sitting up high during the games; I've always felt that the coaches should ALL be on the field, with exception to a handful of assistants, for replays and the like, as it is easier to communicate and have a presence, if you're down there with the rest of the team.